Police issues not new
EXPERTS say the challenges facing the police have been going on for decades and are the result of poor management of stations, and a weak intelligence system.
Gareth Newham, a crime expert from the Institute for Security Studies, said the challenges within the SAPS were long standing.
“These challenges have been around for 10 to 15 years and the main problem is they’re just getting worse. For some reason the current leadership and management structures of the SAPS are not able to quickly identify these emerging problems and then develop practical interventions and solutions.”
Newham said detective docket loads had been heavy for decades but not all detective work was equal.
“One has to make sure that the detectives working on serious violent crimes such as murders, rape and organised violent crime are properly resourced and can spend their time ensuring that those who commit these crimes are effectively targeted and thrown into jail.
“This is a critical priority that the police have never really managed. We also need crime intelligence.”
He said the intelligence capabilities in the police were largely decimated during the State Capture era because of Richard Mdluli, the former crime intelligence boss.
“There had been massive instability at the top of the organisation, until quite recently. In the last year or so, we saw a permanent head being appointed. However, they have not been very clear about what they have done to improve the capability of crime intelligence. There are hundreds of people in crime intelligence that should not be there. They were recruited and appointed by Mdluli who is now a convicted criminal.”
Newham said this meant the capabilities which guided the police to deal with criminals were not working optimally. He said the police were also not open and transparent about what exactly they had done to remove people that should not be there.
“These are not new issues. We are not seeing intervention to fix issues such as poor fleet management, lack of resources such as radios and computers. Proper planning and procurement and training for some reason has not improved either.”
He added that there was a need to overhaul the police structures.
“We need to see a complete overhaul of the structures that oversee the police so that the police are more flexible, quickly able to see what the problems are and implement innovative responses, as opposed to taking over a decade to watch problems just continue without being able to solve them properly.”
Mary de Haas, a KZN violence monitor, said she had received similar complaints from the police, about the lack of resources and vehicles as well as the concerns they face dealing with corrupt cops, for a long time.
“The lack of resources has been going on for years. There are vehicles that are not maintained and are sitting at the workshops. They are related to bad management. If you have good management at the station the vehicles will be maintained,” she said.
“Sometimes station commissioners complain that it is the fault of the department that deals with vehicles and it is a complicated procedure.
“It starts with the station commander because there is no excuse. In some areas, especially rural areas, there is a shortage of vehicles due to the bad roads.”
De Haas said detectives were the ones overworked.
“There are not enough good and well-trained detectives. It’s another old problem that they are carrying far too many dockets.
“They also have to wait forever to get ballistic and mortuary reports. It is a very frustrating job. It goes back to how the police are managed.”
She said corrupt police officers were a danger to everyone, including colleagues.
“There is a lack of discipline and again a lack of proper management, but also a failure to deal with police who are not disciplined and corrupted.
“If you had a properly functioning crime intelligence system they would show all this up and be able to know who all the people involved in corruption are.”